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Tag Archives: John Kasich

Conservative commentator and Weekly Standard founder Bill Kristol is searching for someone to challenge President Trump in the Republican 2020 primaries, but he suggested that if no one steps up, he might just do it himself.

“I’m not going to run, but I think the only circumstances under which I can imagine me or someone like me running . . . would be if no one else runs,” Kristol told Buzzfeed.

So, “I’m not going to run,” but I might run.

According to the Buzzfeed piece:

He wondered hopefully, in the interview, about the availability of Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, and James Mattis — three men who were on his 2016 wish list — and of Nikki Haley, who like Mattis ended up taking a job in the Trump administration. Kristol also has kind words for John Kasich, whom he visited recently in Ohio and acknowledged is the Republican most likely to take on Trump, though the governor’s personality and moderate politics have turned off other leaders in Kristol’s neoconservative orbit.

Speaking Wednesday in New Hampshire, Kristol said a challenger was necessary to “force the debate” over the future of the Republican Party.

“I don’t know if a challenger would succeed. In my view, I think it’s important to have one just to force the debate,” Kristol said. “I think if Trump were to lose in 2020 it would allow for someone to step up and say, ‘Well, here’s a different way forward than just kind of trying to redo Trump over the next several years.’”

I’ll tell you what else a serious primary challenge would probably force. A Democratic victory in 2020 following months of attacks on Trump by a fellow Republican that help Democrats make their case, free of charge, while depleting GOP resources.

Here is Kristol with a friend who is perhaps Trump’s most likely challenger.

Very interesting, lively and wide-ranging conversation over dinner here in Columbus with @JohnKasich. What topics did we cover and what conclusions did we draw?
Silentium est aurum. pic.twitter.com/C3rAcmWPCm

John Kasich’s inner circle is gearing up for a possible presidential run in 2020 — actively weighing the prospect of a Republican primary challenge to President Donald Trump against the feasibility of a long-shot general election campaign as an independent.

And there’s one consideration driving their thinking perhaps more than any other: what some of his advisers consider the very real, maybe even likely, possibility that Trump doesn’t run again — by choice or not — or that the president becomes so politically hobbled by late next year that the political landscape fundamentally shifts in Kasich’s favor. That’s one reason Kasich has yet to decide whether to pursue an independent bid or a primary challenge.

Nine Republicans in or close with Kasich’s political operation told POLITICO that the departing Ohio governor has been working with a tight clutch of advisers and informally surveying donors and fellow pols about the shape of his next steps. So far, he has solidified his role as a go-to commentator for national news shows while stacking his schedule with trips including an April return to New Hampshire.

None of this is to say Kasich is a go for 2020. But his activity has undergone a marked shift from just a few months ago, when Kasich and his allies repeatedly denied any interest whatsoever in the White House, even as he embarked on a book tour.

John Kasich was at the White House for the briefing today to tout the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Kasich is a traitor to his Party. If you don’t want to support Trump, fine. But don’t start appearing at the White House to join forces with a Democratic president against Trump on his signature issue.

Kasich is bitter about the election, which he lost fair and square. But he is a senior and veteran Republica official. If he wants to help the Republican nominee lose, he should join the Democrats and see how they treat him. Seems like he’s moving in their direction anyway.

Gov. John Kasich is out of the Republican contest, having put out word that he is suspending his campaign.

Now, as we all know, Kasich was out of the election soon after New Hampshire, but continued his ego trip for months afterward. Nevertheless, his campaign put out word today that he is formally ending his long-dead quest to be president.

That leaves only Donald Trump as the last man standing and the presumptive nominee, I presume. Unless Jim Gilmore gets back in, which I doubt.

You remember Jim Gilmore, right?

Gosh, of all those people onstage during those GOP debates, now there is only one.

I had wondered if maybe Ted Cruz had some kind of weird plan to let Kasich go one on one with Donald Trump and do well enough to deny him the 1,237. But I checked, and Kasich’s polls were terrible in all the remaining states I saw, so this was out of the question.

Well, so much for all the “act presidential” stuff. Donald Trump was back to being Donald Trump Monday, describing Gov. John Kasich’s eating habits as something awful to look at.

In fact, according to Politico, Trump is chafing under his new team’s direction to be more dignified, a stance which has never, as far as anyone has ever seen, suited him. And his new de facto campaign manager, lobbyist Paul Manafort, is all the worse for it.

From the Politico piece:

Donald Trump is bristling at efforts to implement a more conventional presidential campaign strategy, and has expressed misgivings about the political guru behind them, Paul Manafort, for overstepping his bounds, multiple sources close to the campaign tell POLITICO.

Trump became upset late last week when he learned from media reports that Manafort privately told Republican leaders that the billionaire reality TV star was “projecting an image” for voters and would begin toning down his rhetoric, according to the sources. They said that Trump also expressed concern about Manafort bringing several former lobbying colleagues into the campaign, as first reported by POLITICO.

Campaign insiders say it has become increasingly clear that Trump, for all his boasts about his ability to become more “presidential,” is simply unwilling or perhaps unable to follow through, and resents efforts to transform him . . .

Trump expressed concern after learning about Manafort’s moves to bolster the campaign by bringing on associates from his lobbying days, as well as his pitch to leery Republican Party leaders.

At the risk of sounding unpresidential myself, Kasich is indeed a disgusting eater. Just look this, if you can bear it. Note how he wraps his mouth around about half the pizza at one point. View him, near the end, very subtly lob some stray pizza onto his fork with his index finger instead of his knife.

But the really offensive thing here is how he eats his pizza with a fork in the first place. As a New Yorker myself, I can tell you that this is absolutely unacceptable, and indeed, disgusting. I don’t know how they eat pizza in Ohio, but a New Yorker would not be caught dead daintily slicing up pizza with a fork and knife. They might be caught dead after doing so.

For those of us journalists who have covered Capitol Hill, one of most shocking developments of this year’s campaign season was the emergence of Nice John Kasich. He’s running for president on a message of optimism, love, warmth, love, warmth, optimism and warmth.

Few people in Washington who have dealt with John Kasich know Nice John Kasich, or were even aware that he existed. We were far better acquainted, during his many years here as a Congressman, with Surly John Kasich, No-Patience John Kasich, and Condescending John Kasich.

Of course, you can’t change your personality based on focus groups. So sometimes, the real person does emerge.

Sixty three percent of Donald Trump’s GOP supporters say that if he earns the most delegates in the primaries but fails to secure the Republican nomination in Cleveland, he should run as an independent or a third-party candidate, according to a newly released CBS poll. Among all Republicans, a third think he should run on his own.

The poll shows Trump’s margin nationally among Republicans over Sen. Ted Cruz narrowing, though he still is up double digits, with 42 percent supporting him compared to 29 percent for Cruz and 18 percent for Gov. John Kasich. But in a poll taken last month, Trump was ahead of Cruz by 20 points.

Though many seem to think that if only Kasich dropped out Cruz would be in a position to defeat Trump, the poll suggests that’s not the case. Without Kasich, Trump still leads Cruz by ten points, 48 percent to 38 percent, so the gain for Cruz is fairly negligible, at least nationally.

Six in ten Republicans still expect Trump to be the nominee, down from 77 percent in March, while 22 percent now think Cruz will win.

President Barack Obama has been working feverishly to support embattled Democratic Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland in his bid for reelection, and it’s not because Obama necessarily necessary loves Ted Strickland. Strickland, after all, supported Hillary Clinton during the 2008 Democratic primary and campaigned for her too. The reason Obama wants so badly for Strickland to… Continue Reading